Return of Plant Health Inspections on Friday

Aphis, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, will eliminate the exemption from agricultural quarantine inspection requirements and implement inspection fees for commercial aircraft (including on-demand charter aircraft) flying from Canada to the U.S., effective Friday, November 24. So the family ficus will again become the focus of government agents, and subject to a $70.25 inspection fee for aircraft entering the U.S. from Canada. There will also be a $5-per-passenger fee. The fees were imposed through an emergency rulemaking, sidestepping the publication of a notice of proposed rulemaking. Aphis justified the emergency rule as required “to prevent the introduction of plant pests and animal diseases into the U.S. via conventional pathways or through bio-terrorism and to recover the cost of the needed inspections.”